For me there are many with Clive Barker being the main one. I always liked how he took charge of so many aspects related to his work. A one man production company really...
While their are a sea of others I could go on and on about the one guy who keeps coming up alot for me is Michael Golden.
If you're a comic book fan you may know about him...if you're a comic art fan then you know A LOT about him. He's one of those guys that comes around...does work that blows everyone out of the water in every aspect of the artform...and happily goes along his way doing whatever HE wants too. To say he was influential is an understatement...but what really sticks into ones head is his work ethic. He's very much a guy who's always seen the end result as what it's all about. As such much of his original art work no longer exists. It came as quite a shock to many to hear that he destroys most of his original artwork.
To give you an idea of what that means in the comic book world...that's like making a movie...printing it on DVD...then destorying the original film negative...and killing the entire cast. It can never be reproduced from the original source....ever.
As a result little of his work has been reproduced and most of it rests rotting in it's final comic book form. Granted the negatives needed to print those books still exist...but it's not the same. It's all kind of sad yet fitting in a way...and that always stuck in my head.
Now how much of his work he managed to destory no one knows. How much of it is in private collections...again...no one knows. But their is a comforting feeling in knowing that what you create is as mortal as you are.
With so many artists "creating for the ages"...it's a nice change of pace. A damn shame that the guy to thinks this way has to have so much talent. Makes one smirk though.
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